Chapter 2
"Hey, Merlin. Fancy going out for a drink tonight?" Gwaine asked as he sauntered into the stables that his friend was currently mucking out.
"No," Merlin replied abruptly.
"Oh, why not?"
"Because I still have loads of work to do here and have to get up at dawn tomorrow." Merlin used the interruptions as an excuse to take a breather, running an arm across his forehead and leaning on the shovel he was using.
"Honestly, you should live a little," Gwaine replied, a broad grin plastered across his face.
"Honestly, you should act like a knight of Camelot!"
Merlin hadn't meant his response to come out quite so harshly, but he'd had a tough day and really wasn't in the mood for Gwaine's antics. He supposed, deep down, he was a even little jealous. It seemed that all his friends had been promoted and had most evenings off, whilst he had the same job and the same, if not more, work than he had before – despite everything he'd done for Arthur during the last few years.
"If I'd realised what a bunch of old women they all were, I might not have been so keen to take Arthur up on his little job offer."
"Sorry, Gwaine, but I just can't find the time and, you know, it really wouldn't do you any harm to get an early night and turn up for training without a hang over for once."
"I'd rather not." Gwaine replied with a sigh. "Never mind, I'll suppose I'll just have to go on my own."
Merlin stared after Gwaine for the longest time as his mind started to work overtime. His friend's regular nightly jaunts to The Rising Sun had not gone unnoticed by the other knights, nor by Arthur who also seemed torn between allowing Gwaine a little freedom and reading him the riot act. After another few moments of contemplative silence, Merlin lowered his broom and set off to look for the only other person he could discuss his latest idea with.
xoxOxox
"Hello, Lancelot."
"Merlin. To what do I owe this pleasure?" The Knight was sitting down on a low stone wall, sharpening his sword with a whetstone.
"Oh nothing much just … well, I wanted to talk to you about … Gwaine and … magic."
"Not two words I'd usually put in the same sentence," Lancelot observed, looking up briefly from his work. "Do continue."
"He's going out drinking again tonight."
"Oh dear."
"So, I was wondering if you'd go with him?"
"Me?" Lancelot looked up abruptly, obviously shocked at the suggestion.
"Yes, you know to ... keep him company?"
"Right ..." Lancelot looked at Merlin suspiciously. "And where does the magic bit come into this?"
"Well, I was trying to think of a way for Gwaine to be dissuaded from drinking every night and taking his new job more seriously and ..." Merlin paused as he noticed Lancelot's gaze drop back down to his sword. Seeing he was briefly distracted, he quickly and quietly muttered the words of his most recently spell.
"And …?" Lancelot prompted, looking up again to find … absolutely nothing in front of him. He jumped abruptly to his feet. "Merlin?"
"Yes, Lancelot?" replied the invisible warlock.
"What …?" Merlin grinned broadly as Lancelot turned this way and that, trying to work out what had happened. Quickly glancing around himself to be certain that no-one was around, Merlin bent down to pick up the sword his friend had discarded on the floor and started to wave it around rather wildly. Lancelot turned back towards him and jumped yet again. "Merlin ..." Lancelot hissed. "Is that you?"
"No, it's the ghost of old King Ambrosius."
"You shouldn't joke about such things. What are you …? How did you …?"
"Yes?"
"Look, Merlin can you … undo that spell? It's not exactly easy to have a conversation with a sword."
"Oh, of course ..." He muttered the words of the spell and, shortly afterwards, Lancelot's wild gaze settled firmly back on his face.
"You really should be more careful about doing that sort of thing in public."
"Yes, yes, I know but, I thought I could do the same to Gwaine tonight."
"Gwaine? I don't see how …?" Merlin just raised his eyebrows and gave Lancelot a long,meaningful glance. The knight stared back, his brow wrinkled in concentration for a moment, until light eventually dawned and he started to grin broadly. "Oh … yes, that could be interesting but, Merlin, you need to be careful. How do you plan to pull this off without anyone else seeing?"
"You're right. It's not only important for my safety, but the joke won't work if anyone else sees what's really happening."
"Right?" Lacelot replied, obviously still not fully understanding.
"So, you go and tell Gwaine you want to go out with him tonight and then sit in a quiet corner where you're out of sight of most of the patrons and leave the rest to me." He grinned broadly but Lancelot shook his head with a sigh.
"Alright, but I really do hope you know what you're doing."
xoxOxox
Merlin waved a cheery goodbye to Gaius that evening saying, quite honestly, that he was going to the tavern with friends. The old man raised the usual eyebrow at such an atypical announcement but made no other comment, now less inclined to nag his ward who, even he had to admit, was far too old to be questioned about what he did in his rare spare time.
Once in a quiet corridor, Merlin moved into one of the numerous alcoves and cast his spell before carefully walking out of the castle and down towards The Rising Sun, where he waited outside for his prey to arrive. It wasn't long before he spotted the pair approaching, Gwaine talking animatedly to Lancelot as they came closer.
"I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised that you offered to come along tonight," said Gwaine.
"Well, you have asked me often enough, I thought it was only polite," Lancelot replied.
"Perhaps but, of all the knights, you were honestly the last one I thought would take me up on the offer. Even Merlin turned me down, you know?"
"Really? Well, he is rather busy at the moment."
"Merlin is always busy," Gwaine responded whilst the subject of the conversation slipped in through the doorway behind the pair and nodded vigorously at the last comment. "Not that I believe for a moment that Arthur fully understands just how hard he works or realises that he's not nearly as useless as he likes to make out." Lancelot looked as stunned as Merlin felt at having someone like Gwaine make such an observant comment.
"I think that if Arthur truly believed Merlin was useless he would have replaced him years ago," Lancelot responded carefully.
"Well, that's true, but I still get the feeling that our lanky young friend isn't quite the open book he likes to make out, don't you?"
"I-I'm not really sure what you mean."
"Hmm ... well, you'd better get the drinks in," Gwaine continued, handing Lancelot some coins, "I think last week's incident with the stray goat and the pickled eggs might have prejudiced this particular barman against me. Best I keep my head down tonight."
"Ah ...?" Lancelot obviously didn't know how to respond to that comment, whilst Merlin found himself quite desperate to ask for more details of the story. "It's a bit noisy in here tonight, Gwaine, why don't we sit in that corner over there?" Lancelot said instead.
"Really? Only there's some friends of mine here that ..."
"I'm not really that used to nights out in the tavern," Lancelot continued before making his way to the bar, "I'd rather sit somwhere quieter."
So Gwaine walked over to the table he'd indicated and waited for the drinks to arrive, and Merlin stood quietly to one side until Lancelot came back, before gently wriggling onto a spare bit of bench and letting Gwaine take several generous sips before putting his plan into action.
xoxOxox
In order to make things easier for Lancelot, the first bit of magic Merlin performed was as invisible as he was, subtly allowing one tankard to empty quicker than usual and the other to drain much slower. Checking that no-one else was paying the two knights any attention, Merlin then decided to start gently, moving Gwaine's tankard very slightly just as he made a grab for it. Even Lancelot didn't see this, and Gwaine simply blinked a couple of times before trying again. This time Merlin let him get a hold of it but not before he filled the whole mug right up to the top when it had been almost empty before. Gwaine blinked again and looked at the liquid.
"Did you just top my drink up?" he asked Lancelot.
"Me? No. You were talking and looking at me the whole time." Lancelot's lips twitched slightly as he started to guess what was going on and, after that Merlin was rather less subtle, sliding the drink more obviously out of Gwaine's reach twice more.
"Did you see that? It moved?"
"What did?"
"My drink … it just slid across the table."
"How much have you had, Gwaine?"
"Not that much, not really … I mean ..." Gwaine frowned and shook his head again, as if realising that he felt a little more intoxicated than usual. "There, it did it again, you must have seen it … you were looked straight at it?"
"S-sorry, no. It's sitting right there ... just where you left it."
Next, Merlin quietly got up from his bench, walked slowly and quietly behind Gwaine, and then gently tapped him on the shoulder. The knight turned casually and then went wide eyed when he realised there was no-one there. When Merlin tapped the other shoulder he jumped up boldly, causing the bench to fall over against Merlin's shins. The young man muffled a yelp and rubbed his sore leg whilst Gwaine looked around for the strange sound as he started to right the bench. With a scowl and a flash of golden eyes, Merlin pushed, forcing the bench and Gwaine to fall forwards far too quickly and end up in an undignified pile on the floor. He gave a nod of satisfaction at getting his own back.
"Are you alright?" Lancelot asked.
"There's something very funny going on here," Gwaine complained rubbing a sore elbow.
"I think perhaps you've had enough for tonight, don't you?" Lancelot said.
"I can't be seen to be leaving right now. Not this early in the evening. I'll never live it down."
"Perhaps, but Arthur has asked us to be there especially early for training tomorrow."
"We'll be fine. I think I'll risk the barkeeps wrath and go and get the next round myself."
"Where are you, Merlin?" Lancelot whispered once the other knight had moved out of hearing range.
"Here. I'm going to have such a bruise on my leg tomorrow, that bench was heavy."
"Have you been emptying my tankard."
"Yes, I hope you don't mind."
"No, it's a good idea, but you definitely owe me at least one free drink next time we're out," he replied with a small grin.
"It's a deal. Right, he's coming back, let's have one more go at convincing him it's time to go home."
Merlin continued to slide Gwaine's drink around and even had it floating in the air in front of him, whilst Lancelot's gaze remaining firmly fixed on the table in front and swearing the mug was stationary. To prove the point, he reached out for the space where Gwaine had last left it, only to have Merlin quickly move it into his hand as if he had never been anywhere else. Merlin had to admit he was impressed at just how good Lancelot was at keeping a straight face during all of this. He was currently grinning like an idiot and really, really struggling not to laugh out loud at the look of total disbelief on Gwaine's face at each new incident.
After the shoulder tapping, Merlin progressed to pulling at Gwaine's hair, blowing on his face and even make his tankard disappear whenever the knight turned around to try and find what was behind him. Just a few more drinks, and a few extra additions to his glass and it wasn't long before even Gwaine had to admit that he was obviously much more drunk then he'd realised and that it was perhaps time to go.
The pair left the tavern shortly afterwards, Lancelot offering a little support and encouragement to the bemused knight, whilst Merlin, leaning against the blacksmith's shop, was now visibly in Lancelot's eyeline and gave his friend an encouraging wave.
That had been a great deal of fun. Now ... who could he try his new spell out on next?
xoxOxox
A/N Thanks for your reviews, suggestions and patience on this one. I was away on holiday last week and am now back at work which has been taking up a lot of my focus again. I really have been drifting for far too long and so I've now written a detailed weekly planner and mapped out my writing/practising/housework/exercise and work times and it already seems to be paying off.
There were lots of ideas after the last chapter and I took little bits here and there rather than grabbing one wholeheartedly. So, thanks to Gusto Gismondi for 'tapping people on the shoulder', and both Aurora89, Kat Shadow & Chayiana for the various 'drunk Gwaine' ideas. Plus Merlinismylife for suggesting including Lancelot. To me, this idea worked much better if there was someone else there denying it.
I'm still not going to be too rigid with the time this is set in but, so far, most of the ideas I've had and other people have suggested, seem to place this somewhere in-between S3 & S4.
I already have a sketched plan for the next chapter, although any new ideas I receive in the meantime might change it. If I stick to this new timetable, I should have time to keep up weekly updates on this one, and continue to plan and write my next big fic, 'Born Of The Dragon' which I've also been playing with recently. Check out my PP if you want more up to date info on my progress.
18/4/12